Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Ocker Teaches Blodwwen

The moment Blodwen leant aside for more apples for her pan of water, Ocker and Urr-Urr rushed at her other pan and snapped up several apple slices apiece."Hey fowl!" she cried, hoplessly too late as they buoyed themselves above the reach of her swat with a couple of flaps and settled at the far end of the board.

"Yea?" said Ocker as he gobbled down his slices. "Ravens is the kind we happen to be, if ye want to sound like you know things, dear. And by the way, nice apples."

"Good for you, sweetheart," he said as he lunged into the air to hover over her shoulder. "You owe us."

"Just how in all the chiming bells of Golltowre is that?" she said, turning squareabout on her seat in time for Urr-Urr to grab out more slices from her pan and lungeinto the air.

"Damn you varmints!" she cried, wheeling back to her pan.

"Listen quiente," he said, hovering at her ear, "you owe us because Meri Greenwood would never have got here without us. And if you had any sense you'd see hit. And while you're a-wising up, shouldn't someone be looking after Meri?"

"What?" she said.

"What's going to keep him from going all crazy and beating up the old hag,anyway?" he said, settling onto the table by Urr-Urr to take one of her slices. "If she's asconfounded ugly as these two, he might."

"Look 'ee here!" cried Hubba Hubba. "These old ladies are nice!"

"Yea?" rattled Ocker. "What do you know about it, fraud? You ain't even a bird."

"I'll have you know I'm a double yellow-head Amazon..."

"Popinjays never made it all the way to birddom, hole!"

"And nobody owes you the time o' day..."

"Well Hubba Hubba," said Minuet, "I do owe him my life..."

"He's that very Ocker?"

Minuet and Razzmorten both nodded with twinkling eyes.

"Well maybe if he just watched his mouth..."

"Hey, I'm just distracted, Yellow Crow," said Ocker with wide-eyed smacks of his beak, gobbling down another slice of apple. "I mean, we brought Meri all the way here,and now his whole world just caved in on him, don't ye know..."

"Whosoes woreld hath juste kaaved in?" said Meri as everyone in the room stopped short at the sight of the radiantly gorgeous Celeste on his arm.

"Ich didde nat," he said as he and Celeste knelt before a speechless Minuet. "My gracious Queene. Wolt thou us to marye this verray howre? In dede, wolt thou plesemarye us byforn weo risen fro oure knees?"